Capture modes
BetterScreenShot provides several ways to capture your screen:
Area
Drag to select a rectangular region. You can refine the selection by dragging its edges or corners. The resize zones are invisible so they do not appear in the screenshot.
Previous Area
Capture the most recently used area again. BetterScreenShot remembers physical screen geometry and adjusts when possible, but reconnecting displays or changing scale can require a fresh area selection.
Window
Choose a visible application window. The selected window is captured without requiring you to crop it manually.
Current Display
Capture the display containing the active pointer or app context.
All Displays
Capture the complete Windows desktop across connected displays.
Timer
Start a delayed screenshot so you have time to arrange a menu, tooltip, or other temporary state.
Scrolling capture
Capture a vertically scrolling desktop window by advancing and combining multiple frames. Dynamic content, fixed toolbars, animations, and virtualized lists can make desktop stitching difficult. For webpages, the BetterScreenShot browser extension is usually more reliable.
Refine an area selection
- Drag inside the selected region to move it.
- Drag an edge to change one side.
- Drag a corner to change two sides.
- Confirm when the frame matches the content you want.
- Cancel to leave the screen unchanged.
If a selection touches a monitor edge, continue dragging the edge itself. BetterScreenShot keeps resize interaction available without drawing resize squares into the captured image.
Quick Access
Quick Access is the compact result overlay that appears after a capture when enabled. Available actions can include:
- Copy the image.
- Save a permanent file.
- Open the annotation editor.
- Float the image as an always-on-top reference.
- Drag the result toward another application.
- Close the temporary result.
Hovering or using the keyboard within Quick Access pauses automatic closing. Closing Quick Access does not automatically remove the item from History.
Copy and paste
BetterScreenShot places both image pixels and a named temporary image file on the Windows clipboard where supported. This improves compatibility with applications that accept a bitmap, a file, or both.
If pasting fails in one application:
- Try a normal
Ctrl+Vinto Paint or another basic image editor. - Use Save and attach the file instead.
- Confirm the target application accepts images.
- Check whether clipboard security software is blocking file or image formats.
Annotation tools
The editor supports editable annotation objects, including:
- Arrow and line.
- Rectangle and ellipse styles.
- Pencil and highlighter.
- Text with direct editing, alignment, padding, and large font sizes.
- Numbered counters.
- Blur and pixelate.
- Spotlight.
- Crop.
Select an existing object to move, resize, rotate, restyle, reorder, duplicate, or delete it. Undo and Redo apply to document edits.
Text annotations
Select the Text tool, choose a point or region, and type directly. The editor supports font sizes from 8 to 400 pixels so text can remain readable on high-resolution screenshots.
Use the properties panel for color, secondary color, opacity, style, alignment, line spacing, padding, corners, and shadow when available.
Colors and eyedropper
Choose a preset color, including black, or sample a color from the image or screen with the eyedropper. The pointer changes to an eyedropper while sampling is active. Selecting a preset applies it immediately.
Crop, resize, rotate, and flip
Document transforms operate on the editable document rather than requiring you to modify the original source file first.
- Crop keeps the selected region.
- Resize changes document dimensions and can preserve the aspect ratio.
- Rotate turns the document.
- Flip mirrors it horizontally or vertically.
Annotations and effects scale with the document when resizing. Use Do not enlarge source when you want to prevent upscaling.
Presentation backgrounds
Presentation tools place the screenshot on a polished background with configurable padding, aspect ratio, alignment, corners, shadows, and source styling.
You can:
- Choose a built-in background.
- Select a solid or gradient style.
- Use a custom local image.
- Save and reuse a presentation preset.
- Apply or remove the current background without altering the original source file.
OCR and QR
BetterScreenShot performs text and QR recognition locally.
OCR can:
- Preserve visual line breaks.
- Produce compact text.
- Recognize from a capture, local image, clipboard image, or paused recording frame.
- Detect HTTP and HTTPS links when enabled.
QR recognition can find text or safe web links. BetterScreenShot shows the exact destination before opening a link and rejects unsafe URL schemes.
Recognition quality depends on resolution, contrast, language data, font clarity, and image distortion.
Save, export, and editable projects
Use Save to create a normal image file. Use project export to create a portable .bssproj when you want to keep editable annotations and required assets.
Important distinctions:
- The source image remains separate.
- History holds BetterScreenShot's managed working copy.
- A saved image is a permanent flattened output.
- An exported
.bssprojis a portable editable package.
Project autosave protects ongoing edits inside BetterScreenShot. It is not a replacement for exporting a portable project when you need to archive or move the work.
Floating references
Float an image to keep it above other windows while you work. Floating references can be resized, moved, adjusted for opacity, locked for click-through use, hidden, shown, and closed through their controls or the tray menu.
If an image cannot be deleted from History, close any floating reference, Quick Access result, editor, or media surface currently using it, then try again.
Printing
Use the editor's print action to open the Windows print workflow. Printing capabilities depend on the selected Windows printer and driver.